It's been a while since I posted a music video nobody will watch. So here's one that combines three loves. Music, Animaniacs and Geography. I realize I'm aging myself here and country configurations have changed a bit since this song was first seen in the series but I love it anyway.

In grade six my teacher, Mrs. Joki, used to call two students up to the front of the class to stand in front of a map. She would say a name of a place on the world map and the first student to find it and point it out won that round and stayed in the game until they were in turn put out. I loved that game and did well at it. Geography was something I never had to work at. This song brings back a very rare pleasant memory of school days.

Mauritius and Reunion are off the east coast of Madagascar which is off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar has been on my bucket list since I was a kid and learned vanilla is produced there. It had nothing to do with that movie with the penguins.

Besides being drop dead gorgeous, Mauritius has a few features that make it worth taking a a plane trip to the other side of the globe. One of these features is the Chamarel Coloured Earths.

Et Voila!

In the Rivière Noire district, words which here mean "Black River", the “seven-colored earth” is a bald patch of earth in the middle of a dense forest where "bald" means a shiny pate with rainbow, clown, wig colours. The soil was created by volcanic rocks that cooled at different temperatures, causing the earth to form beautiful bands of color in the exposed hillsides. Rocks beget sand eventually as is the nature of things and the sand here is around seven different colours of red, purple, brown, grey, green, orange and yellow.

The really interesting thing about the sand is they spontaneously settle in different layers with each colour sticking to sand of its own colour. This phenomenon can also be observed, on a smaller scale, if one takes a handful of sands of different colours and mixes them together, as they'll eventually separate into a layered spectrum. But who has time to watch sand particles migrating? I do.

What I wouldn't give to shake some up in a jar and wait for the migrating to happen! However, the sands are off limits to us.

Nearby to the Charmarel coloured earths and also in the Rivière Noire district is Tamarind Falls.

Also, this is the land of the giant lily pads we've been seeing around the internet lately. The Pamplemousse Botantical Gardens (Pamplemousse means "grapefruit") feature the lilies and other exotic plants and trees native to the island.

And let's not forget the pristine beaches gently washed with crystal clear water

Oh and sugar! I saw this picture below on a Mauritius tourism site that was offering a tour of sugar manufacturing. I loved this picture and sugar manufacturing says "tropics" like almost nothing else can. Well, except maybe rum. As if Mauritius wasn't already irresistible enough!

Atheist Granny suggested this post to me by posting a link to the article on my facebook timeline and saying absolutely nothing whatsoever about it. Sometimes, I can take a hint.

Behold the always beautiful, sometimes scary world of cloud formations

Altocumulus undulatus (best name ever)

Altocumulus undulatus clouds, Abruzzo National Park, Italy. This cloud formation consists of parallel bands of cumulus clouds. It occurs when a layer of altocumulus cloud is affected by wind shear. Also: Frimmbits Undulatus has a nice ring to it

Cumulonimbus

Cumulonimbus cloud over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border. Cumulonimbus clouds rise vertically until they hit a natural barrier, known as the tropopause, and then flatten out. Cumulonimbus clouds usually herald the onset of a severe storm. In this image, which was taken from the International Space Station (ISS), several cumulonimbus towers are seen underneath the main cloud, casting a large shadow on the land below. Cumulonimbus...I love cloud names!

Lenticular, often mistaken for UFO's. This one is in Hawaii

Lenticular

Famous lenticular you've seen before

The lens-shaped clouds form at high altitude and are usually formed when moist air passes over a mountain range and is heated without any transference of heat energy as it descends. The cloud pattern depends upon the wind speed and the shape of the mountains. A constant wind may produce clouds which are stable and remain virtually stationary in the sky for long periods.

lenticular

Lightning illuminating Monument Peak in Arizona

Mammatocumulus (yes, named after mammary)

Mammatocumulus clouds over northeast South Dakota. Mammatocumulus (or breast cloud, for realz) is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. They can produce some dramatic and unusual patterns on the sky and are also associated with severe storms. I don't know if breasts are what come to my mind here but then breasts rarely do. I'd be tempted to call these Abinomichellan Tiremanocumulus or Cartoonfistsocumulus, but that's me.

Morning Glory (photo: mike petrov)

A rare cloud formation in various parts of the earth, it occurs most predictably over Australia's Gulf Of Carpenaria on the North coast. More information here.

Cirrus

Pileus cloud, Sarychev Volcano, Russia

Pileus clouds, also called scarf or cap clouds, are small clouds that form on top of a bigger cloud. In this photo a pileus cloud (centre) has formed above a cloud of volcanic ash from the Sarychev volcano. The picture was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Note too the ring of non-cloudy air surrounding the volcano that is thought to have been caused by the eruption

rainbow spiral or noctilucent cloud

Totally cool Noctilucent clouds are crystals of ice hanging around 80 kilometres high in the atmosphere that catch the light of the sun long after it has set on the horizon. Natural nacreous clouds occur at altitudes of 20-25 kilometres. The cloud in this image was formed from the exhaust of a missile launched from a distant firing range.

Shelf cloud, Minessota

Shelf cloud, Minnesota, USA. When seen from the ground shelf clouds appear as low, wedge-shaped clouds and are usually associated with severe thunderstorms. Ominous and looming much like the Lad when he's hovering around the stove waiting for dinner to be done.

Steam ring, Mount Etna, Italy

Steam rings are produced pretty much the same way smoke rings are made.

Vapour trail illuminated by sunset over South Wales

Sunlit contrail over South Wales. This image shows a vapour trail left by an aircraft lit by the sun below - so that it appears to be a fiery meteor.

Von Karman cloud vortices above Alexander Selkirk Island, Chile. These clouds look like they have had a hole punched through them. In fact they are naturally occurring vortices crafted by wind patterns on the clouds. In this image these cloud vortices (swirls down left) have been caused by the peak of Alexander Selkirk Island (bottom left) disrupting wind-blown clouds.